The 1950’s to the mid 1960’s were a time of Rock ‘n’ Roll, sock hops, Sadie Hawkins dances, Friday night football games, school proms, band concerts, weekend movies and all those other things teenagers are apt to do.
It was a carefree time for those of us who experienced them but there was a specter in the background, a shadow that hung low over us and was a constant reminder of the fragility of life. The Atomic Bomb in the hands of the Russian Communists was a constant threat to the free world and particularly to the United States.
It was at times an ominous presence that had a tendency to cloud the thinking of even the most clear headed thinkers of the day. There was a misguided feeling that if the disastrous were to come to pass people could survive it by building bomb shelters.
In hindsight today we’ve realized that a bomb shelter was nothing but a fancy tomb that would have no tombstone to mark where it was should a thermonuclear device of the magnitude being built would ever explode anywhere in the vicinity. Fortunately, by divine providence, it never happened.
Aside from the “Bomb” as it was sometimes referred to there was also the threat of Communism; that philosophy that had become the leading political system in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (or Soviet Russia as it was sometimes referred to).
It had come to the fore in the McCarthy hearings in the halls of Congress when pompous and arrogant little man launched a crusade against what he perceived to be the forces of Communistic infiltration into all aspects of American society, particularly in Hollywood, trade unions and even in government agencies.
But, like all demigods McCarthy’s reign was cut short by his excessive over reach and he fell into disrepute. However, the threat of Communism remained and we were witness to it as Russia and its satellite countries began to march and conquer the small nations that surrounded it and it’s sinewy tentacles even began to reach into South and Central America. We even saw it insinuate itself into Cuba which led to a confrontation between the United States and Russia that many thought was very close to the brink of nuclear annihilation. But, Providence saw us through safely once more because wiser heads prevailed.
Socialism proved to a failure because without the spirit of incentive and motivation people did not strive because they had come to the realization that no matter what one did they would not receive any more than their comrades who did as little as possible or nothing at all except live off the government dole. That dole had to be replenished and the only way that could happen was by conquest of neighboring countries until their “wealth” and “riches” dried up as well.
Even so there are those who still sing the praises of the State being completely in charge of everything because they would then be the ones who would wield authority over all. Such is the rationality of tyrants and despots who think not of others but of their own selfish desires with the delusion that they are the only ones brilliant enough to “lead”. We realize now that the fight for freedom and liberty is never over and that each generation must shoulder the responsibility to defend them against the forces that seek to curtail them.
We went through this in our youth a now we see it renewed as we prepare for our sunset years in the no so distant future. The cycle seems to be never ending and old battles won have to re-fought all over again against a new enemy that has insinuated its way into our very midst and seem determined to institute a tyranny our founding fathers fought against and left ample warning of it’s possible return.
Return it has and fight we must; in the meeting halls, the halls of our legislatures and even in the halls of Congress. If we fail there the alternative is to fight by other means that are not as pleasant but may indeed ultimately become necessary.
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